Any improvement in a dairy medium or other media that results in faster acid production, and/or increased activity of an acid producing bacterial culture, is of commercial value to the cultured dairy products industry. Faster acid production, improved culture activity, and increased storage viability are factors which speed up production of cultured products and reduce the amounts of starter culture necessary for bacterial fermentations. Shortened production times and decreased dairy medium requirements will reduce the overall energy consumption in a cultured dairy foods facility because of the large amounts of energy involved in sterilization of media, maintenance of fermentation temperatures, and plant operation and overhead during processing periods.
Improved culture activity and viability during refrigerated storage also allows use of cultures over longer periods of time, necessitating less frequent batch production. Finally, reduced production times and reduced use of starter medium ingredients can represent an economic savings to the cultured dairy food producer.